


Been Trying To Do What's Right

by IrishBradfordZiall, mylifeislirry



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-08-08
Packaged: 2018-01-24 07:55:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1597385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrishBradfordZiall/pseuds/IrishBradfordZiall, https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylifeislirry/pseuds/mylifeislirry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"...How the hell did that even happen?" Zayn told himself.</p><p>"...The hell do I do now?" Louis asked himself in front of the mirror.</p><p>"...Holy shit" Niall said to himself.</p><p>"...I'm sorry" Harry whispers into the girl's hair as he hears it collapse fully.</p><p>"...Liam felt ashamed, placing his hands on his head, he could feel his whole body burning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Zayn turned the last page of his book and closed it gently, settling it down next to him on the strikingly healthy green grass. He felt tapping on his shoe, as he looked up to see a brown haired with stunning ocean eyes known as his best friend, Louis. They've been best mates since primary school, and they decided to room together at UNI. Louis started talking about his day to Zayn, Zayn got out his sketch book and pencils zoning out to Louis' speech about his life. Louis soon realized that he's been talking to himself, "...Zayn!..." He bent down near the oak tree that Zayn was resting his back onto and snatches Zayn's sketch book. He examines his quick doodle, realizing that Zayn was drawing a funny picture of Louis. "Oh god Zayn, you sure are talented" Louis laughed. Zayn got up from the tree and stood right next to Louis as they both examine his art. "I forgot one.. more... thing.." Zayn said, as he signed his signature near the bottom corner of the page. He grabbed his sketch book and tears out the masterpiece, giving it to Louis with a smile as big as his heart. "I'll cherish it forever Zayn" Louis jokingly says in a sarcastic tone. Louis folds the paper and puts it in his pocket.

"So Zayn, want to go to the coffee shop with me a few blocks down from here?" Louis asked.

"Yeah, sure." 

As they were walking, Zayn started to get a massive headache. It became unbearable as he had to stop and take a break.

"What's wrong?" Louis asks as he turns back to see his friend behind him. He started to run his arm across Zayn's back trying to soothe him.

"Ugh, I don't know.. it's just some headache. I'm.. fine.. let's keep walking" He sighed.

"I think you should go to your place, we can go get coffee another time.. you need rest" Louis said.

"No really, i'm fine" Zayn persists.

"Zayn, go to your flat now." Louis said in a serious tone.

Louis gave his friend a hug and headed another direction to his own flat. Zayn turned back, opposite way of Louis' direction and started walking to his flat. As he entered into the building, he searched in his pockets for the keys. His headache worsens and he scrambles for the keys, only to drop it on the floor below. He bent down to grab over it and felt a massive flow of pain within his head. "Damn it" He whispered. He put the brass keys in the lock and opened the door to his flat, he quickly shuts the door behind him, heading to the kitchen. He opens a cabinet where he keeps all his pills and medications, searching for some pain killers. He grabbed the bright orange translucent bottle, and grabbed two white small pills and placed them in his hand. He went to the opposite side of his kitchen, opening another cabinet where all his glasses were. He grabbed a cup and walked to the sink, pouring in cold water. He popped the pills in his mouth and downed the water quickly.

Lately, Zayn has been getting these massive headaches, roughly around this time of day for about two weeks straight. It has gotten progressively worse each day, but he doesn't want to tell Louis, or anyone. Zayn always hated being on the spot light, he never liked people caring for him. It was different for him, he's always the one taking care of others, he's just not used to others taking care of him. He knows the pain killers aren't going to help him, as he's been taking them almost every night trying to get rid of his massive headaches, it just hasn't seem to work. He detested going to doctors, they always scared him as a kid, and they weren't as much help to him anyways, he refuses to go to the doctors. Zayn just thinks he's stressing out too much about school and paying for rent, he knows it will go away soon.

He lies on his couch and turns on the telly, he chose a random channel and he felt his eyelids slowly droop down. A couple hours later, he woke up and checked the time, 1:30AM. He moaned, rubbing his eyes and looking at the TV. He tried to find the remote to turn off the telly but it must have fallen off the couch in his fitful nap and skidded away. He sighed, not wanting to get up. He sat there for a few minutes, Star Wars was on, one of his favorite movies as a child. He started to laugh, he reaches his hand out and for the hell of it, pretends he's using the force to get his remote. He tries hard concentrating in a joking manner, laughing as he's doing it. "Am I seriously doing this" He whispered to himself. Right as he was about to put his arm down and get off the couch, the remote flew right into his face, with a lot of force. "Fuck" he yelled. It hit him right on his forehead, giving him a small bump.

He started to rub his temples and got up, turning the TV off and walked to the bathroom. He turned on the sink and poured water on his face, examining the bump on his head. "How the hell did that even happen?" He told himself while looking in the mirror. did I move the remote? he thought. He ran into his bedroom and started pacing around, Maybe i'm just really tired, he started telling himself. There was a water bottle on his nightstand next to his bed, "If I could move the remote, then I can move this." He said, He put his arm out, like he did before and started to concentrate, then he gave up. "Am I really fucking doing this? it's impossible to move anything by just thinking about it." He told himself, he sighed and and put his arm down, really concentrating on moving the water bottle, hoping that he doesn't hurt himself in the face like before.

The bottle started to move slowly, it started to float in mid air, leaving Zayn dumbfounded and awestruck by what he was doing. He starts to move his eyes to the left and then the water bottle moved to the left as well, He looks up and the water bottle started getting closer to the ceiling. He moves his eyes in all direction, with the water bottle moving wherever he pleased. He starts to concentrating on the water bottle to move closer to him, and eventually it did, slowly Zayn reaches his hand out to grab the water bottle that was right in front of his face. He opens the bottle and drank the water, He started to laugh, it was almost 2 in the morning and he has some type of power now. He couldn't believe it at all, thinking it was just a dream. "Maybe that's what caused the headaches" He said. Zayn took off his shirt and pants, only having his boxers on and fell asleep on his bed.

Zayn woke up the next morning, remembering what happened to him last night. He started making himself breakfast, he backed away from the stove and just by thinking about turning the temperature higher on the stove, it turned on with flames. He just sat down, examining all the things he was doing by just the power of his mind, the pan started floating and rested on top of the flames. He looked at the fridge, it opened by itself and two eggs came out of it, floating in mid air and cracking itself onto the pan. After breakfast, he checked on his phone, he got a couple texts from Louis, mostly just asking if he's alright. Zayn wanted to tell him about his gift to Louis, he started typing it out, 'Louis, you won't believe it..' Then he stopped. He started thinking in almost every superhero movie he's seen, he notice that they never tell anyone. Maybe there was a reason behind that, so none of their loved ones can get involved in their mess. But it wasn't like Zayn is going to save the world by moving things. Still, it didn't feel right to Zayn. He thought, at least for now that it's best if no one knew, Hell Louis would probably think he was crazy anyways.

The next day, The two boys met up with each other at the coffee shop.

"Mate, what happened to your head" Louis laughed while holding his coffee.

"Got hurt at 1 in the morning, ha" Zayn chuckled to himself.

"The hell were you doing?" Louis asked.

"Just fell, that's all"

"Didn't know Malik was so clumsy" Louis joked, "Anyways, my history professor is making everyone go to some stupid field trip at the local museum and wants everyone who can make it to the museum to write an 8 page research essay about the damn thing." 

"That sucks, just say you're sick and don't go." Zayn said

"You don't understand, it's worse for people who can't go. the ones who aren't able to make it have to write a 16 page research essay about some fucking president." Louis said.

"It's not that bad, just go. Maybe i'll write the first four pages for you" Zayn said as he took a sip of his coffee.

"Really?" Louis face lit up, "The stupid thing is, he's making us all go during the weekend. It's a two day thing too."

"Louis, just go it's not going to ruin your life." Zayn told him. 

A few days later, it is Friday. The day before Louis' trip to the museum. Lately, he's been feeling sick to his stomach. It started to become unbearable as the pain went on for the whole week. He thought it was a lucky sign, so he doesn't have to attend the trip, but he has to go anyways. No matter how sick he is, because he sure as hell doesn't want to deal with a 16 page essay later on. He started packing his backpack, since he is staying near a hotel right next to the museum for a two days. As he finished packing, he went outside his bedroom and walked over to his door, grabbing the keys and putting it in his pocket, he sighed. He didn't want to deal with any of this, but it's what happens, he decided to go to UNI and he has to deal with everything that it offers him. As he reached for the doorknob, his hand looked as if it was fading away, Louis blinked a couple times wondering if he was just lacking of sleep from the sleepless nights that his stomach was giving him. He put his hand on the knob and right away his hand with through it, as if he was a ghost. 

"What the hell?" He whispered.

He did it once more, and this time his hand disappeared completely, then he looked to his other hand, it was gone as well. He started to feel the panic in his veins and ran to the closest mirror in his flat. All he saw was floating clothes, he couldn't see himself at all.

He started pacing around, looking at the mirror, scaring himself and turning away, repeating the whole process over again. "Please come back please come back" he repeated to himself.

He stopped, and took a deep breath, closing his eyes, and then looked at the mirror once more. He saw himself again and sighed in relief. Louis grabbed his stuff and headed out of the door, this time opening it with no issue. He starts wondering that he's dreaming or imagining things, but part of him thinks it's real. He drives to the hotel and enters his room. His room has a huge closet mirror, Louis started to think, thinking of just disappearing. He doesn't know how he pulled it off last time, but as he's just focusing on only that he sees himself slowly fading away, He makes sure to stay calm and eventually he disappears, just leaving his clothes on his body visible. He starts thinking to himself, if he can practice more with whatever is happening to him, then by tomorrow, he can quickly leave the trip, the teacher is only going to take attendance of who participated and that's it. He can sneak off easily, and all night Louis practiced nonstop until the sun was starting to come out. He got couple hours of sleep until he's awaken by a bang on his door. 

He slowly got up from bed, he didn't feel like walking all the way to open the door this early in the morning, and all of a sudden, his body teleported to the front of the door. "Holy shit" he whispered to himself, not only could he become invisible but he realized he can transport, and it didn't seem hard at all for him, he just thought about it and ended up where he wanted to be.

He started practicing teleporting to different spots in his hotel room but realized the banging started getting louder. " 'm coming!" he yelled. He teleported back to the door and opened it. "Yes?" Louis said in a sarcastic tone while raising his eyebrows.

"Sir," said the stranger while examining Louis, who only had his boxers on.

Louis caught on and stared down below, "Oh god, hold on I'll get some - " He was interrupted by the stranger. 

"Um, bus leaves in two minutes, you're the only one who still isn't in the bus. I suggest - " he paused, looking down at Louis body, feeling awkward. "That you, um... get ready." and he left.

"Shit" Louis whispered as he closed the door, he grabbed some clothes on, and ran down the lobby and out onto the bus. The bus headed to the museum and the teacher gathered the students around in front of the building. He explained to them the history behind the building, and then entered inside of it. He started taking attendance and that was the time for Louis to leave, he waited until he heard his name.

"Tomlinson, Louis" He called out. 

"Here!" He yelled in excitement. 

He was in a middle of the crowd and thought of himself to go to the nearest bathroom in the museum. He closed his eyes, and then realized he just teleported a few feet away from the crowd. "Tomlinson, get back over here" The teacher said. 

"Damn it" he muttered to himself, he still hasn't gotten full control over his power. He raised his hand like a primary student and asked if he could be excused to the bathroom. He ran as fast as he could to the bathroom and locked himself in it.

"The hell do I do now?" He asked himself in front of the mirror. 

He started to slowly fade away again, like a ghost. "That's it!" he said. The only problem is that his clothes were still visible. He went back to his normal visible self, and sighed. Knowing what he has to do. He slowly took all his clothes off, kicking it somewhere in the bathroom. 

"Ugh, I can't believe i'm doing this." Louis is fully naked, and then he started to disappear. He felt awkward, knowing that everything was out, he unlocked the bathroom door, he could see his other friends forming groups and exploring the different places in the museum. Even though he knew no one could see him, he still covered his cock feeling extremely embarrassed. He started to run outside of the building and headed back to the hotel, As he was opening the door to his car, he could hear a few screams and shrieks from people behind him. He realized his body was starting to become visible again, "God damn it" He said, as he jumped inside his car and drove as fast as he could back to Zayn's flat.

Unlike Zayn, Louis wanted to flaunt his power to his best friend, to anyone really. He didn't even think twice about keeping his gift a secret, he arrived at Zayn's door and closed his eyes, he teleported himself into Zayn's flat without having time to knock on his door. He saw Zayn's eyes moving around and noticed an object, one of his paint brushes floating in mid air, he noticed it moved wherever Zayn's eyes moved. 

"Holy shit dude!" Louis blurted out, Zayn is startled and turns around quickly to find Louis naked.

"Dude what the hell?! Where's your clothes.. Oh god Louis what the fuck" He closed his eyes and took a moment to sigh, he ran over to his bedroom and returned with a pair of clothes. He threw it at Louis, which he caught perfectly in his hands. He put on his clothes, and laughed to himself.

"How the hell did you get in here too? Louis aren't you supposed to be in that trip? What the hell is happening?" Zayn questioned him.

Ignoring Zayn, he is still amazed at what he saw Zayn do, "Mate, you got to teach me how to do that." He stared at the floating paint brush. Zayn turned around and did another sigh, dropping the paint brush to the ground.

Zayn walked over to his table and pulled out an extra chair for Louis to sit on.

"... So your headaches stopped after.. this?" Louis questioned him after Zayn explained what happened.

"Yeah, apparently.. What about you? did you get any headaches.. before getting your.. powers?" He raised his brow.

"Well, I mean I've been getting this terrible stomach pains but it actually stopped once I think about it." Louis said.

"So you can transport anywhere you like? You just have to be naked?" Zayn asked while laughing.

"No... I can turn invisible too though! That's why I was naked cause you can't see my body but you can see my clothes" Louis stood up and demonstrated, leaving Zayn's mouth opened as he saw his best friend slowly mist away like a ghost only seeing the clothes he let Louis borrow.

"Jesus Louis, is that how you got out of the trip?"

"Yeah it doesn't matter anyways, he just cared about attendance" Louis said.

"So both of us, suddenly have powers.. You know Louis, we can't be telling anyone about this." Zayn said.

"Why not? It's not like we're going to be experimented on?" Louis paused with a concerned look on his face starting to show. "Are we?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to find out. So keep your mouth shut, and we can't use our powers in public" Zayn told him.

"I didn't know this gift came with rules Mr. Malik" Louis said in a mocking tone.

"Seriously Louis, no one can find out about this."

"I get it Zayn, don't tell anyone. got it." Louis said.

 

Meanwhile, a few cities away a blonde haired, blue eyed lad was playing his guitar in front of a small crowd inside a club, enjoying the refreshing feeling of people enjoying and watching him perform. After he finished his songs, he goes outside to take a couple of breaths and breathes in the cool air. He starts looking at the sky, playing a quick game of what the clouds look like to him. Suddenly, he recieves a text from one of his best mates. 

'Have a game tonight, it's a big one. Everyone's going'

He loved supporting and seeing one of his friends play football. His friend was a big deal in this city, all the tickets sell out every time his team plays, luckily for him he can get fairly decent seats for free. The blonde texted back saying he would be there in a minute, but his friend told him to get there in less than 10 minutes or else his seat could be taken away and the gates were closing up soon. "Fuck" the blonde whispered to himself. 

He raised his arm and waved his hand furiously to get a taxi, but they all ignored him. He gave up and knew that the stadium was just a couple miles away. He knew he wouldn't make it in time but he had to at least try. He paced himself, starting off with a fast walk. It started getting darker and he started jogging, but for some reason he felt like he could go faster and faster. Soon he started racing as if he was a track champion. He's running so fast, he turns his head to see the cars and realizes he's running faster than any of the car's speeds, and the speed limit for them was 55mph.

"Holy shit" he said to himself. He wanted to stop, to take a moment that he's running faster than a cheetah, But he just couldn't seem to make himself stop. He felt like he could go even faster, and he did. It's only been a few minutes before he arrives at the stadium, just as the gates were about to close he ran, and soon he saw his friend, the game didn't even start yet, leaving a couple minutes left to talk to his friend.

"You got here fast, Niall" his friend told him.

"Yeah you wouldn't believe it, I ran here." Niall said.

"You..what?" His friend said as he started to choke on his water that he was drinking. Niall patted his back until the coughing stopped.

"How is that even possible Niall, you perform at a bar that's 6 miles away. not even trained runners get here in that amount of time." He said.

"Apparently I did" Niall said.

"You're bullshitting, you're not even sweating! You took a taxi here didn't you?" He laughed.

"I'm serious!" Niall pulled his friend by the shirt, bringing him closer as Niall whispered in his ear, "I think.. there's something wrong with me." 

The announcer came on and his friend had to be on the field, for the rest of the night Niall couldn't focus on the game. All he could think about was his insanely fast speed. He thought to himself, I could be the next Bolt, I can join the olympics. Hell I'll be the fastest man known in history. After the game his mate invited him to an after party to celebrate their undefeated season, but he denied the invitation, saying he was feeling a bit sick and wanted to go home. 

The next morning, Niall woke up early, he wanted to train himself. He got up and dressed himself in basketball shorts and a white vest top. He opened his fridge, debating if he should get some water while running. He always hated running while carrying things, and yesterday his little 6 mile run didn't affect him at all. He put the bottle back in the fridge and headed out to the door, towards a local school where he knew there was a track he could run on.

Niall started off with a slow jog at first, but he started to increase speed after a few minutes. After he ran 100 laps in less than 4 minutes he began contemplating whether or not he should tell someone. He figured he probably shouldn't because it was unnatural, what if people thought he was weird because of it. Not even the fastest animal on the planet can run that much and not be out of breath nor can it run in that kind of speed. He realized he was running faster than any sports car, he didn't know what was happening to him. He felt different, he didn't feel the same. Not that it's bad, he feels stronger and he's still the same guy he was last week but there was just something different, something odd about him.

 

In a different part of the city, an emerald eyed baker started walking to his job. He worked at a bakery with his mother, he dropped out of school trying to help save the family business. A few months ago, his father started to get weak, and in a few weeks, he was gone. Now, his mum is working two jobs and barely able to pay off the hospital bills and the house. The baker started to help out around the bakery, knowing that some day it will not be open.

He entered the door, the bell ringing behind him inside the bakery. His mother is trying to carry crates in the back, but it's too heavy for even a body builder to pick up. He could hear his mother sigh, he ran to the back of the bakery and saw his mother on the floor, covering her face with her hands as she silently weeped. She heard his footsteps and looked up, trying her best to smile at her son.

"H-harry" His mother called.

Harry couldn't stand seeing her suffer, without thinking he ran over and tried to lift the crates, but he was stopped by a gentle hand grabbing his wrists.

"It's no use, not even the strongest person alive can carry this. Not even the workers could carry this inside. They had to use all this machinery to even get it in here." Harry's mother explained.

Harry looked at his mother and lifted his hand, putting it on her face and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I got this." Harry said with his green eyes shining at his mother. He lifted the crates with ease.

"Mum, you've got to be joking" Harry said, "They barely weigh anything!" 

"How is that even possible? it weighs like 500 pounds dear!" his mother said in shock.

Harry smirked, "Where do you want me to put it?" His mother pointed to the spot and he walked there with no issue and laid them on the ground.

He helped lift his mother up from the ground, "You should really rest, don't want to end up like.. dad, you know." He said while staring at the ground.

"I don't want you to deal with all this stress" His mother said.

"It's alright, go home and get some rest. You really need it." Harry said.

They both headed to the front of the store and Harry put his apron on and stayed behind the counter near the cash register. His mum opened the door and the bell rung from above it, his mum waved to him and wished him a good day, He waved his hand back furiously like a little child. After Harry's long day shift, he headed to the gym. Harry's never really been a big fan of working out, mostly because he never has the time. 

But he was curious, the crates didn't weigh like anything his mother said and he couldn't believe the fact that not even the workers could carry it on their own to the bakery. Harry's never really been fit to begin with but slowly in the past months, without even trying he can feel himself get stronger, extremely strong. He barely does any heavy lifting on the job either, hell he thought someone did some drug testing on him to make him get super strength or something, like in the movies.

Harry starts lifting more and more pounds, and as he starts increasing the weights, somehow it becomes easier for him to carry, almost like it's natural when it's not. In no time he was carrying the most weight it had to offer. He tried other lifting workouts, it all seemed to easy for him. He left the gym, walking around in places. When he saw small building caught on fire, he ran over to the scene where everyone was gathered.

He pushed his way through until the fire fighters stopped him, "Sorry, this is as far as you can go through sir." Said one of the workers, holding a water hose. Harry sighed, he turned to his left and asks the person next to him what happened.

"I don't really know, it started out of nowhere. poor thing, you see Rachel over there?" The old man pointed to a crying woman near the ambulance cars. Harry looked back at the old man and raised one of his eyebrows.

"Well, they got everyone out safely, except for her daughter. Probably around 6 years old I think. Poor thing couldn't even live it's full life. The fire fighters don't want to risk their life trying to save her, they say the building is going to collapse in a few minutes." The man said.

This shocked Harry, the thought of a child who's helplessly waiting to be rescued is going to die a horrible death, and no one is even bothering to try. He couldn't imagine it being one of his sisters, or even a daughter of his own one day, he would do anything to protect them. Harry stepped closer until one of the fire fighters came up to him again.

"Listen boy, I said this is off limits." 

"Fucking sick you know, just standing around, knowing that a little girl is trapped in there!" Harry yelled.

"Better to lose one life than to lose more" 

"Oh bollocks! Better to lose no fucking lives"

The firefighter made him furious, he grew up knowing that fire fighters would risk their lives to save you or at least they would try. He's standing right in front of them, laughing and joking around waiting for the building to collapse. Harry couldn't stand it, he pushed the fire fighter with all his force to the ground, he winced when he heard the thickening crunch of the firefighters head hitting the ground, but he tried to ignore it. The others tried to stop Harry but he simply pushed them away to the ground and he runs into the building. 

"Fucking bastard, go die with her then." Yelled one of them.

Harry was inside, calling out if anyone was there. He checked every floor and as he reached to the third floor he saw a little girl, crying and coughing holding a teddy bear close to her heart. It looked as if she was about to pass out and he quickly ran to her side, he went on one knee and grabbed her, throwing her onto his shoulder. "Hang on love" He whispered to her, while stroking her blonde hair. He tried to find a place to get out but the building started to fall apart. The entrance he went to was blocked off by fire. He tries not to panic, but he hears the floors from above collapsing. He looks up and he see's the ceiling above him crack and begin to fall, he shuts his eyes and clutches the girl closer with one hand while raising the other over his head . 

"I'm sorry" he whispers into the girl's hair as he hears it collapse fully.

He feels the impact on his arm, but it doesn't crush them. When he finally unclenches his eyes and looks up he see's that the ceiling is being held up by his hand, he can see the veins popping out in his arm, signifying that he's using his muscles, but he doesn't feel any exertion. 

When he looks down he can see the floor below him beginning to crumble, he's still holding on to the ceiling and with all his strength he pushes it upwards, making the upper part of it shoot up into the sky. He looks around the room he's in and see's a window. 

"Okay, little girl? I'm gonna need you to hold on to me real tight, can you do that? Just wrap your arms around my neck and hold on. You can do that for me, yeah?"

The girl nods slowly and buries her face into the crook of his neck.

It's getting hard for him to breath and he can tell by the soft wheezing noises made by the girl in his arms that she's having a hard time as well.

He walks over towards the window and attempts to open it, but he realizes that the paint that it's nailed shut. Without second guessing he easily punches through the glass and climbs out on to the small ledge outside the window, he can feel the girl in tighten her hold on his neck and he pets soothingly at her back. When he looks down he see's that they aren't as high up as he expected, only 30 or so feet. He wraps both arms around the girl and tells her to shut her eyes, squeezing slightly.

He only manages to think a quick oh god before he jumps off the ledge. 

He lands with a sickening twist to his ankle, but with the adrenaline rushing through him he can't feel the pain. 

He can feel his lungs falling apart with all the smoke he breathed in, he may have a type of super strength but he still had normal lungs, he starts coughing furiously as he limps over towards the fire fighters. They try taking the girl away from him. He pushes them back, feeling like their purpose is no longer useful. He slowly starts walking towards the ambulance where the crying mother is, he hands the mother her daughter who is covered in all this black dirt, she starts to cry even more, kissing her daughter on the forehead. She stands up and gives Harry a bone-crushing hug.

"Thank you" She whispers, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. He smiles and opens his mouth to respond but he's interrupted by a sharp cough making it's way out of his throat. The paramedics put an oxygen mask on the little girl first and then on him, after a few minutes the little girl's wheezes stop, and Harry's lungs recover quickly.

A few hours before the fire, A man with deer-like brown eyes and a brown hair styled up into a small quiff returned home from work. He enters the building he lives in and runs up the stairs towards his flat, quickly pulling out his keys and unlocking the door in bursting through it in one swift motion. He's been feeling short-tempered and more hot than usual, he thinks it's just a fever that will go away but it's been going on for weeks. He decides to release his stress by smoking a cig. He puts his hand in his pocket finding a pack of Marlboros, only two more left until he has to go out and buy new ones. 

He lifts one out of the package and raises it towards his lips, he reaches into his pocket for a lighter but he realizes he doesn't have one. He grabs the end of the cigarette, planning on taking it out of his mouth while he goes to find a lighter, but the second his fingers make skin contact with the paper it bursts into flames. His eyes widen and he rips the cig out of his mouth, throwing it onto the floor and crushing the end of it with his heel. He walks to the couch in his living room and sits down. He rubs the palms of his hands over his eyes so hard he can see dots when he stops. He reaches towards the remote on the coffee table in front of him except by just touching the table, it bursts into flames.

He's pretty sure he makes an embarrassing noise as he jumps off the couch and tries to find a fire extinguisher, except when he tries to turn the handle on the closet door where he knows the fire extinguisher is, that bursts into flames as well. Soon his whole flat is on fire. Not knowing what to do he panics and runs out, knocking on all of his neighbors doors and screaming at them to get out of the building. He begins helping anyone in the upper floors to get out of the building. 

When he finally got everyone out safely, he went outside before the entire building started to collapse. That's when he heard news that there was a little girl trapped in there. The fact that he had started a fire that was responsible for killing an innocent child was eating him inside out, he started to pace back and forth, trying not to let the tears flow. Knowing that he caused all this, knowing that a little girl is going to die, because he wasn't careful enough. He couldn't save everyone, and it's killing him.

He had to get out of there, he ran as fast as he could, out of his part of the city, as far as he could to get away. He felt ashamed, placing his hands on his head, he could feel his whole body, burning. He felt like it was 100 degrees out in a summer day and he just wanted to cool off, but he couldn't he couldn't escape the heat he is feeling.


	2. Chapter Two

He shuts the door from his hotel room and heads outside to the streets. His stress has subsided a bit since the incident, but for the past few days Liam has been on edge. He's starting to feel the burning sensation inside of him again. He tries to find the closest store where he can escape the feeling by getting the only thing that seems to always soothe him. Liam notices a gas station across the street and nearly bursts into a sprint as he quickly makes his way towards it's inviting fluorescent lights.

Anxiety rushes through his body as he stands in front of the store, staring at the "pull" sign on the door, remembering the last time he felt like this, he burnt his apartment building down and caused chaos in his small town. What if he kills more people just by touching the door handle? What if he accidentally sets it on fire?

"Excuse me" He hears a woman's voice from behind him.

He snaps out of his daze and shakes his head, "Sorry 'bout that" He reaches to open the door for her, but the woman's hand has reached the handle before his, opening it before he could.

He moves out of her way so she can enter first and he follows behind. He starts pacing back and forth from the aisles trying to find cigs he could buy, he spots a section with the different brands of cigarettes and chooses his favorite, he hesitates before grabbing the pack, thinking that it would burst into flames, closing his eyes he takes a deep breath and sighs. He opens his eyes and reaches out to grab it, waiting for them to be destroyed by his hands. A few seconds pass with nothing happening and he's snapped out of his daze by hearing the bells above the door ring and when he looks up he see's three guys in dark black suits and with sun glasses. Each of them spread out into different sections of the store, keeping their eyes on Liam. They make Liam feel a bit queasy and he immediately wants to get out of the store. Liam heads to the cash register, trying to get out of the store as soon as possible. As he hands the money to the employee, he turns his head and tries to spot the three men, and when he finally see's them off in the corner whispering amongst one another, all staring at Liam.

"Would you like a receipt?" Liam turns his attention back to the cashier and shakes his head, grabbing the pack and leaving the store, the burning underneath his skin starts to get worse and he can't handle it anymore.

He walks towards the side of the building, under the sharp bright light of the streetlight. He leans against the wall, relishing in the cool feeling of the brick on his forehead. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out the his cigarettes, he see's his hands shaking and he clenches his fists and squeezes his eyes shut, breathing deeply. His hand enters the pockets of his jeans, searching for a lighter.

"Fuck" he mutters, when he realizes he doesn't have it on him. He debates going back in to the store and buying one, but he really doesn't want to be near the guys in the suits, something about them is off. A thought occurs to him, if he could concentrate carefully, then maybe he could light the end of the cigarette. He places his fingers on the opposite side of the cig and keeps his eyes steadily on it.

"Uh, Mr. Payne?" He turns his head towards the side where he heard the voice, there stood the three men he had seen earlier in the store. One of the them pulls out a lighter from their pocket and they all start approaching Liam, getting closer to him.

"Here" one of them says as he holds the open flame up to the end of the cigarette, lighting it. Liam carefully places the end into his mouth and sucks in, breathing deeply and holding the smoke inside until he feels a bit dizzy.

"You need to come with us" Liam breathes the smoke out, tilting his head up and watching as the smoke curls into small wisps before disappearing into the dark night sky above.

"Oh yeah? For what?" He says a bit cockily.

"We'll explain everything later, just come with us."

"I'll pass." Liam coldly replies and pushes them out of his way.

One of them grabs Liam by the arm, turning him to face them before pushing Liam back towards the brick wall that he had previously occupied.

They surround him, leaving no place to escape.

Liam suddenly feels suffocated, like a fire without the proper oxygen to keep it burning, he pushes them away from him, "Get off!" He yells.

He starts to feel his blood boil, he was able to grabs one of them and attempts to shove him to the ground but when his hands make contact with the fabric of his suit jacket, he see's sparks come out from his fingertips and before he can drop his grip on the man, fire starts licking up the jacket, contrasting sharply with the dark clack fabric. The man panics and tries to rip the jacket off of himself but the fire starts to spread, catching the crisp white of his previously spotless shirt on fire. Liam stands there helplessly, watching as the man continues to struggle and as the other two men attempt to help him.

Liam quickly turns and bolts away, running as fast as he can away from the scene. He makes it about halfway back towards the hotel before slowing down and eventually completely stopping. He bends over, putting his hands on his knees and wheezing quietly. He gulps in the cool air of the night and straightens up. He's about to begin walking but he's distracted when he hears footsteps. He turns around just in time to see a body hurling themselves at him and he's knocked to the ground, landing harshly on his stomach. He groans quietly and feels the familiar ache of the wind being knocked out of him.

"You shouldn't have done that" The man says as he sits up on top of Liam's back.

He reaches into his pocket and grabs something, Liam can't see what object is in the man's hand but he feels a sharp pain in his neck.

"Wha-" He tries to get out, but his mouth is becoming heavy, his tongue feels too big for his mouth. Everything becomes a blur and Liam start to feel tired, his eyelids getting heavier, he tries his hardest to stay awake, but he slowly falls into darkness.

+

He looks around the club he usually plays, staring at the few people who come during the day for a drink. On the left corner he spots three men in suits whispering to one of the bartenders, his eyes widening as he stares at Niall and nods slowly. Niall looks back down at his fret-board, trying to not get distracted and keep on with the soft strumming.

When he finally looks back up he spots the bartender walking out of the back room and giving Niall a sheepish look before he see's the manager rushing out and staring at Niall with an angry look plastered on his face. Niall stops strumming and stares at his manager, tilting his head to the side slightly as his manager comes to a stop in front of him. He grabs Niall's collar and rips him off the stage, ignoring the few complaints made by the audience who were actually enjoying the soft strumming and croons coming from the blonde.

"He won't be playing another song for awhile" he snarls. He pulls Niall until he's flush against his body, Niall can smell the cheap cologne and greasy hair gel that the man uses.

"Those three guys need to talk to you for a second" "For what?" Niall says as he attempts to pull back a bit, to create some space between their bodies.

"I don't know they say they're from the say they're from the Scotland Yard, you better not have killed someone, Horan." He responds bitterly, tightening his grip on the boy's collar before releasing him and giving him a shove towards the three men.

Niall starts to walk slowly towards the door where the three men are waiting, panic radiating through his body as he starts thinking of all the bad things he's done in his life. He hasn't done anything major that would send him to jail, he smoked weed every once and awhile but would that really involve the Scotland Yard?

"Niall Horan?"

"Y-yes?" he stutters in a shaky voice.

Then a thought comes to him, did they find out about his super speed that he has developed recently? They probably followed him around until they found enough evidence to confront him, They're probably going to lock him up in a lab and have scientists experiment him nonstop. Niall felt the sudden urge to run out of the situation, run as fast as he can.

"You're coming with us for a bit." One of them says.

"S-sorry can we t-talk another time? I really gotta g-" Niall tries to say as he attempts to getting closer to the door, in a flash one of them reaches out and grabs Niall's arms so he can't escape, twisting it behind his back. They escort him outside the bar and in front of the pub is a black van waiting. Niall tries to break the grasp that the two men have on him as he watches the third open the back doors and usher him forward. He digs his heels into the ground as the two men attempt to push him forward, he feels two hands release his arm and he pulls out of the grasp of the other man. He feels hope coursing through his veins for a split second before he feels a body collide into his, crushing him in to the pavement. His chin hits the asphalt with a sickening thud and his forearm scrapes harshly against the ground. He feels a body straddle him, sitting on his lower back and twisting both his arms behind his back. Twisting up, up, up, until he feels as if his arm is going to break.

"Oi! Get the fuck off a me you bloody bastard!" He yells, his voice breaking into a quiet squeal at then end when his arm is twisted a bit more. He opens his mouth and sucks in a deep breath, getting ready to let out a loud scream for help but before any noise can escape he feels a sharp prick in his neck, he hears soft laughter from above him as he stops thrashing his body and relaxes onto the pavement. He tries to keep his eye's open, he really does, but he can't help it when his vision gets blurry, the bright fluorescent lights from the pub blurring together until he can't make out the individual colors anymore, and his eyelids drop.

+

Harry opens the glass cover containing the different pastries he baked this morning and pulls out a red velvet cupcake, handing it to the customer opposite of him. The customer hands the cupcake to her son below as his eyes widen and his face breaks into a smile.

"That'll be 2.50" Harry says softly, the woman opens her purse trying to find the money.

Meanwhile the boy walked to the glass examining all the pastries and pointed at the glass.

"Mum can we please get this too!" he yells in excitement.

She passes the money to Harry and he places it in the register. "Maybe next time love" She says trying to pull a smile and sighing softly.

The little boy ran over to his mum's side and opened his eyes wide, trying to convince her. She bent down and whispered to his ear, "Mum doesn't have enough money right now, love." Harry tried not to listen but he can hear her whisper.

"Don't worry about it" he says as he walks over to get the chocolate chip cookie the boy had previously been eyeing. "It's on the house" he says giving it to the child.

The mother gave a soft nod and mouthed a 'thank you' before leaving the bakery. Harry smiles softly as they walk out the door, not paying attention to how hard he closes the glass case surrounding the pastries.

"Shit" he mutters as he see's the all too familiar splintering of the glass before it spreads and begins to look like a spiderweb.

He's distracted from the glass then he hears the bell above the door chime and he plasters on a smile before saying, "Hi, welcome, how may I help y-"

"Harry Styles?"

Harry stops and looks at the men suspiciously and examining their dark suits. "Is there something wrong?" he asks them.

One of them pulls out a badge and shows him quickly before flipping it closed before Harry could see what it said.

"You need to come with us." Harry hesitated knowing that he can't leave the bakery unattended.

"I can't, gotta stay here and work." he tells them.

"It'll only be an hour the most, we're just taking you for questioning." They assured him.

"Questioning for what?"

Harry started to wonder if it was about the fire that happened a week ago, Was the fire started purposely to murder all those people that lived in the apartment? What did he have to do with it? He just saved a little girl that only made news for about a day and life went on. What if they ask him how he rescued her, it was impossible to come out alive when not even the firefighters could save her.

"M-maybe another time"

"I don't think we can do that" One of them says before grabbing Harry, but Harry pushes him away, hard.

The man stumbles backwards into the front window of the store and Harry turns around to run away, but the second he takes one step forward he feels a sharp stab in his neck, similar to the pain of a bee sting, and he turns around to be met with the face of one of the men in suits. The man has a snarky sneer plastered on his lips and he grabs Harry's shoulder when Harry loses control of his legs and begins to sway forward.

"F'ck you" He slurs as the man begins to drag him out the front doors of the bakery.

The last thing he see's is the glass door of the bakery swinging shut.

+

Zayn felt Louis' pencil poking the side of his stomach, "Louis stop!" he whispers.

Still Louis kept poking him, Zayn turned to face Louis and concentrated on his pencil, he made it fly out of his hand.

" 'm trying to take notes" He told Louis.

"So was I!"

"You're not even paying attention to the lecture that the professor's giving us" Zayn replied

"Well.. you aren't either!" Louis says as he snatches his notes and points the the doodles that went along with Zayn's notes.

"It's called multi-tasking something you can never do" Zayn laughed as he grabbed his notes from Louis.

"By the way, you broke your own rule mate. What happened to no using powers in public?" Louis smirked as his eyes stared at his pencil below on the ground.

"That was an accident" he told Louis Louis ignored him and Zayn started taking notes again, after a few minutes Louis decides to make his hand fade away and disappear and sticks his hand through Zayn's ribs.

"Bloody hell Lou, someone's going to see you" Zayn said.

"Sorry, it was an... accident." he starts to laugh.

"Stop doing it.. it feels weird" Zayn reply's, looking around at all the other students to make sure that none of them can see what Louis is doing.

"Look I'm inside of you" Louis laughed as he started to mess around with his fingers inside of Zayn. Zayn concentrated on Louis arm and forced his arm to come out of his side.

"Holy shit how'd you do that? Thought you could only move objects" Louis said in amazement

"Well you are an object" Zayn smirked.

Louis tried to think of something clever to say on the spot but instead he just gave Zayn a gentle push. They both looked up noticing that the professor stopped talking, he was standing next to a few guys in suits. They were whispering into the professors ear and he nods softly and points to Zayn and Louis.

"Zayn, Louis go with these lads for a bit" the professor commanded them.

They both gave each other a worried look but eventually stood up and followed the strange men. The men led them outside of the campus and into the parking lot where a black van stood behind them.

"Wait, uh, I forgot something in class. Zayn, you wanna come with me?" Louis asks as he stumbles backwards and points behind him, in the general direction of their class.

Zayn looks around at the three men, and before they could object, he says, "Yeah Lou, I'll come with. Needed to ask professor a question anyways."

Both Louis and Zayn turn around and begin to walk back towards their classroom.

"Those guys were weird, yeah Zayn?"

Zayn kicks a rock in his way before continuing, "I wonder what they wanted from us. Anyways, do you wanna skip class? I could really go for a bacon sarnie right now."

"For lunch? Zayn, you rebel." Louis says with a roll of his eyes.

"Let me just go to my car real quick and grab my wallet, yeah? Then we can walk to the campus cafe."

"Sure, I'll meet you there." Louis says, already pulling out his phone to try and convince Calum to skip with them as well.

Zayn begins walking towards his car, reaching into his pocket to pull out his pack of cigarettes. He lights one and breathes in deeply, letting the stinging smoke travel down his throat and into his lungs. He finally gets to his car he reaches into his pocket to get his keys and he hits the button, unlocking the car. He opens the door to the backseat and kneels down on the seat to find his wallet, which Louis had thrown haphazardly into the back when he had got in Zayn's car this morning to go to class and saw that the wallet was lying on the passenger seat.

"God dammit Louis" He says quietly as he leans farther into the back, reaching under the seat.He reaches around until his hand finally grasps the familiar leather wallet.

"Aha!" He yells as he crawls backwards out of the car, standing up. He slams the car door shut, but before he can turn around to begin walking towards the cafe he feel's a sharp stinging sensation in the back of his neck and he collapses to the ground.

On the other side of the campus Louis sighs loudly when Calum texts back that he really needs to study for the final or else he's gonna fail the class. He makes his way towards the cafe and walks inside, smiling as the he walks in and feels a heater blasting that warms him to his toes. He sits down at an empty table and pulls out his laptop and attempting to make some progress on his paper that he has due in three days. His fingers hover over the keys as he thinks of what to write. He sighs loudly when his mind blanks.

He pulls out his phone and sends a quick text to Zayn,

**Where are ya mate? I'm gonna order with out youuuuu**

He waits a few more minutes, tapping his hands on the table to a tune that he can't quite recognize.

He feels his phone vibrate and he grabs it out of his pocket, thumbing over the screen until he pulls up Zayn's response,

**Changed my mind, ahaha, come to my car or else I'm gonna drive back to the flat without you and you'll have to walk home all alone.**

Louis types out a quick response, cursing Zayn for getting his hopes about about eating some disgustingly unhealthy bacon sarnies.

Louis shuts his laptop and slips it into his bag, swinging it on one shoulder before standing up and walking towards the exit. He winks at the girl behind the cash register and she blushes and stutter's her response to the customer in front of her. Louis pulls his jumper closer to his body and sighs loudly, bloody Zayn making him walk all the way across campus to his car when its fucking freezing outside, he's freezing his bollocks off. He makes his way towards the parking lot and tries to find Zayn's car. Bloody Zayn who has to always have what's in fashion by choosing a car the same fucking color as everyone else. Fucking tosser, he thinks. He finally spots Zayn's car and jogs over towards it, knocking on the window to try and get Zayn to unlock the door and let him inside where he knows Zayn has the heater blasting. That's one good thing about Zayn, he thinks, that Zayn can't handle the cold weather, even though he lives in fucking England.

When he gets no response he kneels down to look inside the window, getting ready to yell at Zayn to unlock the door to let him inside. He's surprised when he see's that the car is empty. He stands up and turns around. He jumps backwards, his body colliding into the side of Zayn's car when he see's the three men in suits standing right in front of him.

"Oh, hey-uh, guys! You know, Zayn and I went back to find you b-" He begins, but he's cut off when he see's a syringe full of a clear liquid descending towards him.

+

The first thing he realizes when he wakes up is intense thirst, he makes a small whimpering sound and the noise reverberates against the white-washed walls enclosing the small bed that Harry is laying on. He tries to open his mouth and yell something, but nothing comes out, he can feel his throat sliding together uncomfortably and it stings a bit. He looks down at the stark white sheets that feel like paper against his skin, which really doesn't help the fact that his body feels so dry that he could catch on fire as fast as tinder. He rubs his hand and along the back of his neck, running his finger tips over a small bump that is particularly sore. His eyes widen when the memories of the men in suits come flooding back. He wonders if his mum has discovered that he's missing, has she called the police? He feels a spark of hope when he remembers how over protective his mother has always been, he usually hates it, but right now it could be the only thing that saves him. His eyes snap to the door when he see's the door knob turn.

A lady wearing all white walks in and stares at him for a few seconds before saying in a near whisper, "Styles, follow me please."

Logically, Harry knows he should ask her why, or even refuse, but he still feels a bit tired and his neck ache so he submits to her order and follows her out of the room. everything about this seems wrong but Harry doesn't want to put up a fight or ask questions, he just simply follows her out of the room. They walk in silence as Harry looks admires the building he's in. The woman in white leads him through a maze of halls, every few meters there is a portrait hanging on the wall, some dating as far back to 1939. Each portrait is of a man or a women sitting in a throne-like chair. From what Harry can see from each portrait, all the people in them seem to be sitting in the same room; however, each painting seems to be of a different spot in the room.

Some are in front of a bookcase, while others are in front of a window staring out at a garden, whether it be in full bloom, or whether it be covered in a white blanket of snow. Harry is so absorbed into looking at each painting that he almost stumbles into the back of the lady leading him when she stops abruptly in front of large wooden door, engraved with abstract swirls and stained a dark rustic brown. When the lady pushes the door open the first thing he notices is how much light pours out of the room, it's almost hard to look at, the white light is so blinding that he swears he can feel a bit of heat coming off of it. There are a few arm chairs that are colored a deep dark blue and decorated with small gold decals, he almost cries out in joy when he see's how comfortable they look, hoping to catch a nap in one.

He stumbles forward until he can collapse into the chair, pulling his legs up to his chest and leaning his head on the soft plush armrest and closes his eyes while sighing loudly. He hears someone clear their throat and his eyes snap open to see four pairs of eyes staring at him, but before he can say anything he hears a door off to his right open and he twists his body around so he can watch as a bearded man who looks to be in his early forties walks in.

"Paul, they're all awake" Harry had completely forgotten about the lady who had led him here in the first place and hearing her voice makes his body jolt a little.

"Thank you Abigail, I figured as such when I saw them all sitting here staring at each other awkwardly" He says with a light smile as he pulls up a wooden chair and sinks into it.

The man: Paul, Harry assumes, beckons Abigail over and whispers something in her ear.

Harry looks around see's that at the far end of the room, sitting on a window seat and staring blankly at the floor is a black haired boy with a quiff, he has his arm around the boy next to him who is snuggling into his side. The second boy has light brown hair that he just wants to run his hands through to muss up and light blue eyes that are staring lazily up at the boy with the black quiff. With his back to one of the bookcases, Harry see's a boy with blonde hair that looks like the boy has been running his fingers through it all day because he can see how it sticks up at the ends. He can't see what the boy's eye color is because the boy has his eyes closed, and if he wasn't softly tapping his fingers against his knee to a tune that Harry can't quite recognize then Harry would think he was sleeping.

When Harry looks to his left, he see's a brunette boy with large light brown eyes who is staring at him intently. Harry shivers a bit and leans towards the boy, Harry doesn't know if he's just imagining it but he swears he can feel a subtle warmth radiating off the boy. It also seems as if the bright light he had seen earlier was coming directly from the boy, it's not as bright anymore, hell, he can barely see it now that he's close up, but he can make out the soft glow surrounding the boy, almost like an aura. Harry makes eye contact with him and he watches as the boy tilts his head in a silent question, to which Harry responds with a soft shrug and looks back towards Paul where seems to be finishing up his whispering with Abigail.

They all look at him expectantly, well, except for the blonde who still seems to be oblivious to everything around him. "I'll explain everything in a minute" he says while scanning over a clip-board he is holding. He starts muttering to himself and points to each of the boys as he's doing it.

"Okay... Zayn, telekinesis" he says as he looks at the boy with the dark brown quiff, he pauses, looking down and scribbling on his clip-board.

" Louis, teleportation and invisibility" he says, pointing to the boy with light-brown eyes and blue eyes.

"Niall, super speed" his eyes flick around the room before looking down at the blonde boy who is sitting on the ground.

"And lastly, Liam,fire" he says, smiling at the boy sitting next to Harry.

"and... Harry, strength." He places his pencil on the chip-board and leans to the side to place it under his chair. He stands up and begins pacing around the room, stopping occasionally at one of the windows and moving the curtain with his finger to check outside. He opens his mouth, as if he's about to say something, then closes it and sighs.

"First of all.." he finally begins, "Sorry about my guys kidnapping you but it's the most effective way of getting kids like you here"

Harry notices that now even Niall has his eyes open and is watching Paul pace back and force in the small confines of the room.

"So hiring three creepy men to come get us is the best thing you could think of?" Louis blurts out.

Paul looks at him and shrugs, reiterating what he said earlier, "its the easiest way"

"As I'm sure you have noticed, each of you have obtained a special...ability. It's something you were born with and it has been dormant until recently. That's why you're all here, this school is here to help people like you guys control and perfect their powers. However, you five our special. You're the first new students we've had in years, sure we have people the same age as you, but their powers were discovered at a very younger ages. They've been tainted by this institute, their minds have been warped by this school, warped to believe things that aren't tru-"

"Okay, let me get this fucking straight," the Liam interrupts, "you expect me to believe that we're all fucking super heroes and we have to leave behind our entire lives just to come to this... this school or whatever the hell it is? Fuck you man, I didn't sign up for this, I don't want this."

His eyes flick to Harry for a second before he gets up and begins walking over towards the door.

Paul calls out, "That girl you killed in the fire didn't sign up for that either."

Liam stops dead in his tracks. He can feel the warmth inside him spread, spread through his limbs until he's burning, until the fire is almost consuming him.

"What?" He whispers as he turns around to look at Paul.

"That little girl, you know, the one that was trapped inside that building you set on fire cause of your recklessness"

"I didn't...it wasn't- it wasn't on purpose. It was an acci-"

"An accident?" Paul interrupts, "You almost killed one of my guards today too because you don't know how to control yourself... look at you now.. You're going to explode aren't you? Can't handle being called out? Go ahead and walk out that door, just remember how many lives you're going to put at risk just because you're being you."

There's a moment of silence, where everyone in the room is holding their breath, waiting for Liam or Paul to say something. Finally Paul says, "At least try being here, we can help you. We can teach you."

Liam angrily walks back to his seat without saying a word. Paul looks at his watch and cuss's quietly, he immediately gets out of his chair and walks towards the window, sliding back the curtain to reveal the darkness of a night sky.

"Okay, we're going to have to cut this meeting short. They'll be back soon." Paul says with a sigh. Niall raises his hand and Paul looks at him questioningly before beckoning him to speak.

"Earlier, you- you said that, uhm, was it Louis? Yeah you said he as two powers. Does anyone else have more powers?"

"Some people may have more than one power, others simply have one. I think a few of you might develop more later on, some of you won't and that's okay because we can help you develop and strengthen your power with training." Paul says.

"What about all our stuff back at home?" Liam asks loudly, almost asking for something to argue about.

"We have gotten all the things that seemed pertinent from your homes, everything is waiting in your rooms."

"Oh! So you broke into our flats as well. That's just fucking great." Liam says loudly, his voice echoing through the room.

He stands back up from his chair, this time without looking at Harry, and walks towards the door, "where's my room?"

"329, take the elevator, it's on the third floor, walk a bit and turn left and you'll see it." Paul says calmly as he hands him the key to his room. 　


	3. Chapter 3

The under current of anger that was there when he was talking to Paul has boiled to the surface, making him shake with the exertion it takes to not let it out, to throw things and punch the wall before he even gets to his room. He keeps his head down as he makes his way through the winding hallways, ignoring the curious looks he get. He keeps his hands clenched in fists, and he can feel the sharp sting from where his nails have broken in to the skin of his palm, drawing out blood. He craves the coldness that he can feel radiating from the wall of the hallway, he leans his forehead against the wall and lets the coldness of it draw out the heat he can feel radiating off him, making his clothes stick to himself with sweat.

He can feel his entire body begin to shake, it reminds him of when he was in primary school and he would hide in the custodian's closet to avoid getting bullied, he would hold his breath as he heard their voices, taunting him, calling him out. He would flatten himself on the cold linoleum tiles and look under the small strip of space between the door and the ground, attempting to spot any feet pounding along the corridors. And when he saw none he would open the door, his hand shaking from how scared he was as he wrapped it around the door-handle, slowly twisting it and pushing the door open.

He's interrupted from his memory by a hand on his shoulder, the hand is steady and warm on his shoulder, weighting him down, dragging him below the floor. He shrugs it off and makes a noise of discomfort.

"Hey, let's get you to your room, yeah?"

His eyes snap open when he recognizes the voice. He turns around and leans his upper back on the wall, crossing his arms and looking at the boy in front of him.

"You're Harry, yeah?" He asks as he nods at the boy.

"Yeah, c'mon mate lets get you to your room." he says as he tries to wrap his arm around Liam's shoulders and pull him from the wall.

Liam shoves Harry backwards when he tries to put his arm around him and starts walking briskly away.

"I don't need your help, _mate_ " He snarls, the last word rolling of his tongue like venom.

He stomps away, his footsteps reverberating through the hallway and in to Harry's ears.

"Hey I was just trying to help you. Why are you in such a fucking bad mood?"

Liam stops and turns around, staring at Harry like he's fucking insane.

"Why.... Did- I'm sorry but- what? Why am I in such a bad mood? Because Harry! Because my entire life has just been turned upside down and apprently I'm some fucking freak who can control fire or something! Or actually, I can't even control it because I fucking..." At this point Liam has started running his fingers through his hair, mussing it up. When he looks at Harry he can see the tears in his eyes, "...I fucking killed a little girl." His voice breaks in the middle, catching a bit. Harry walks up to him slowly, stopping right in front of him. They're so close that Harry can feel Liam's harsh breath's on his lips, he gives Liam a chance to push him away before he leans in and wraps his arms around him, encompassing Liam in a deep hug.

He can feel Liam push his face in to the crook of his neck, and if he feels the wetness of tear drops on his skin he doesn't mention it. He begins to rock them back and forth and whispering soothing words in to Liam's hair. After a few minutes Harry pulls back and looks at Liam, cradling Liam's face in his hands, wiping his thumbs underneath Liam's eyes to wipe off the excess tears still there.

"Let's get you back to your room, yeah?"

Liam nods slightly and lets Harry wrap his arm around his shoulders and lead him through the hallways and towards his room.

When they finally get there and make there way inside Liam collapses on the bed, wrapping himself in the blankets that are from his own bed at home and breathing in the comforting smell.

Harry sits in one of the chairs next to the bed and looks around Liam's room. The walls are white, just like his own, except it's not empty. There are boxes everywhere, he assumes they're full of stuff from Liam's home. He can see the soft light that radiates off of Liam, it's lighting up the room and making it warm. Harry shivers slightly and grabs a pillow off the bed next to where Liam is curled up in a ball, he hugs the pillow to his chest in his attempt to get warm. It's soft and comforting and when Harry shoves his face into it he can smell a bit of Liam lingering on it, along with the fresh smell of fabric detergent. After a few moments Liam lifts up the blanket covering his head and looks at Harry,

"Thank you" He says quietly, and Harry can see the soft puffiness around Liam's eyes, can see how bloodshot they are.

Harry hums in acknowledgement and lets Liam close his eyes. Harry moves slightly in the chair, causing the wood to creak softly. Liam's eyes snap open and he stares at Harry, can see the way he's hugging the pillow to his chest,

Liam coughs slightly, clearing his throat, "you cold?"

Harry smiles softly and nods slightly.

Liam moves closer towards the wall and lifts up his blanket, inviting Harry in to the bed with him. Harry hesitates for a second, but he can feel the warmth radiating from Liam, and he kicks off his shoes and dives under the blankets and snuggles up to Liam's chest. Liam tenses for a second before wrapping an arm around Harry and letting his head rest on his chest. He still feels a bit hot, but it's down to a controllable level and he likes the small amount of warmth he get's from having Harry's body snuggled up to his own.

They lay in silence for a few minutes, Harry would think that Liam was asleep but he can feel Liam's heart punding in his chest from where he's lying against his him.

"Liam, did you... did you say you killed a little girl?"

He feels Liam freeze underneath him and he looks up at him, he see's Liam nod slowly.

"Was it in a fire?" Harry whispers, he see's Liam nod again.

"Liam, I don't think you killled her. If it's the same little girl I'm thinking of then she's okay. Well, as okay as she can be after being in a fire."

"What?" Liam say's quietly.

Harry sits up from where he was laying his head on Liam's chest, sitting on his ankles as he tells Liam the story of how he saved a little girl from a burning building. Liam stares at him in shock,

"Really? Wait, how do we know its even the same girl?"

"Have you heard about any other girls caught in a fire?" Harry asks as he moves to sit next to Liam, still not touching him. He's a bit embarassed that he cuddled up to Liam when he's only known him for less than an hour.

Liam feels oddly bereft without Harry's skin touching his own and he leans up and wraps his arms around Harry tightly,

"Thank you so much Harry. You have no idea how much that was weighting on my conscence, I just- I can't even express how relieved I am. It was just... I felt so guilty and-" Liams voice begins to crack again, a sign that Harry now knows means that Liam's going to begin crying. Harry can imagine the way his eyes are watering right now, the way that his eyes get lighter, almost golden, and his bottom lips trembles slightly. Harry wraps his arms around Liam's waist and leans his forehead on Liam's shoulder.

"Shhhhh It's okay. You didn't mean to." Harry knows he must have said something wrong from the way Liam rips himself out of Harry's grasp.

"Yeah Harry, exactly! I can't fucking control it" Liam says as he stumbles backwards off the bed and begins pacing around his room.

"I can't control this, what if it happens again? You heard Paul, I almost killed one of his men by setting them on fire, what if it happens again? I don't- I can't have somebody else's blood on my hands Harry, I just can't"

"Liam, you don't have to, that's what this school is for, to teach you how to control your powers. That's why you need to accept that you're better off here, with all these other people that know what you're going through." Harry pleads, playing with his hands in his lap and looking at the soft blue duvet on Liam's bed.

"No, nobody knows what I'm going through, you're all a bunch of fucking freaks. Freaks with these weird powers, just get out Harry. Get out of my room!" Liams properly yelling now and the anger that's written too clearly on Liam's face makes Harry's heart hurt.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, Liam." Harry throws his arms up in defeat and gets off of the bed, walking towards the door. He reaches for the door knob, but before he turns it, he looks back at Liam.

"If you ever need to... I don't know... talk or something. Just know that I'm here for you. I'm just a few rooms down the hall, okay? Room 334. Remember that yeah?" Harry says as he walks out the door.

Liam watches his figure retreat down the hall until Harry reaches his own room and goes inside, shutting the door softly behind him. Liam can feel the burning rack up his spine and begin coursing through his veins. The heat inside his body that had temporarily left when he was with Harry is coming back full force, making his body shake again. He slams the door shut and jumps back onto his bed, ripping the blanket off of it and throwing it on the ground. He can feel the sheets on the bed scratching against his skin, not letting the cool air touch his body. He groans loudly and shuts his eyes, trying to block out the light. He can feel his body getting steadily hotter and hotter until he can't breathe. The heat is suffocating him, he tries to open his eyes but he's blinded by the intense light. It feels like the light is coming from his own body but he can't be sure. He writhes on the bed, trying to rip the sheet from off the mattress. He relaxes his body into the bed and tries to breathe deeply, willing his body to drift off to sleep.

He doesn't.

A few rooms away, Harry wraps his body in blankets trying to raise his body temperature, he's not sure why but he feels fucking freezing, his body feels almost numb. He imagines Liam being right next to him, he imagines soaking up the warmth that Liam seem's to always radiate. He doesn't realize how tightly he's clenching his duvet until he hears the familiar sound of fabric tearing.

"Fucking hell" He mutters. He squeezes his eyes shut tightly, trying to imagine warm things, trying to raise his body temperature. He can still smell Liam's scent on his clothes and if he's honest with himself it makes his heart ache a little.

He shivers slightly.

+

"Go away!" Zayn says loudly when he hears a loud banging on his door. It's quiet for a few seconds so Zayn figures he can go back to sorting through his records without being interrupted again. He bends down and puts one of the records on his shelf, attempting to remember exactly how he had it organized back at his flat. Whoever packed his stuff did a pretty shitty job at it, and unless there's a box somewhere else that he hasn't seen yet, they didn't even manage to pack half of his massive collection.

He sighs loudly when he hears the banging again, he opens his mouth to yell some profanity that he hasn't even thought of yet, but before he can get a word out he hears,

"Oi, mate, just open the fucking door, my arms are gonna collapse from everything I'm carrying"

Zayn rolls his eyes and opens the door to find Louis shoving past him and dropping a pile of blankets and pillows on his bed,

"Why did you bring so many pillows? Who needs that many pillows?"

Louis flops down on to the bed, making him self comfortable before looking back at Zayn,

"Well, if you must know, I'm gonna spend the night in here with you." He says brightly, picking up the glass of water Zayn had previously set on the nightstand and taking a sip, his mouth turning into a frown when he realizes the water has gone warm.

Zayn collapses in to a chair and says,

"No, absolutely not. You can stay for a few minutes but that's it."

"Don't be a dick Malik, we're the only people here who know each other, and besides, the blonde one has the room next to mine and I can hear him singing loudly and it's really annoying the fuck out of me."

Zayn smirks a little, glad that he's not the only one in a bad mood.

"You can stay for a little bit, but you can't spend the night. I want to be alone, please" He says seriously.

Louis' eyebrows crumple and he runs his tongue over his lips, debating whether he should push the issue or not. But god dammit, he doesn't want to be alone, he _can't_ be left alone.

He smiles brightly, "we'll see how the night goes, I can always just turn invisible," At this point Louis waves his hand out in front of his face, and Zayn watches as it slowly fades in to nothing, "then you won't even know if I'm here or not"

Louis looks like he's just thought of the smartest thing in the world, his eyes lighting up as he flops on to his back, putting his head on the edge of the bed, slightly hanging off upside-down. From here it looks like Zayns frown is a smile, he squeaks when he see's Zayn throw a discarded pillow at his crotch, but atleast now Zayn is really smiling.

Louis played on his phone for an hour while Zayn started unpacking and organizing his new room. As the night went on, Louis could see the tiredness and fatigue in Zayn's eyes. He got up from Zayn's bed and helped him set up the familiar posters from his old flat. Zayn sighed while rubbing his temples.

"Gonna finish this tomorrow, mate. Reckon you should go to your room now." He tells Louis

"But Zayn," Louis started to give him his puppy eyes, "It's too early to go to bed"

"Lou, it's almost 3 in the morning. I'm sure they're going to make us do things tomorrow. Go and get some rest"

"Can't I sleep with you tonight?" He says. Zayn widens his eyes a flickers them to the door, making it obvious so Louis can see.

"Fine, I'll go" Louis says, he closes his eyes and teleports just a few feet away from the door. Zayn's stare intensifies and he folds his arms, waiting for Louis to leave.

Zayn sighs when Louis stands there for a few seconds extra, and he lays down on ihs bed, shoving his head under the pillow to block out the light in the room.

"Please, Lou, just get out. Please" He mumbles in to the pillow, sounding so defeated that if Louis weren't standing right next to him, he wouldn't have heard it.

"Okay, okay. I'm going" Louis says quietly, his shoulders wilting like a flower as he makes his way toards the door. He spares on last look at Zayn, who's burrowed his face under the pillow, and he flips to light switch off.

"Night Zayn." He says as he shuts the door softly behind himself.

Zayn falls in to a deep sleep almost immediately, but it feels like it must have only been a few minutes before he hears a loud crash and someone muttering "shit".

He sits up and rubs his eyes, sighing as he lifts his duvet off of himself and gets off the bed. He strolls in to the small kitchen in his room, and by kitchen he means a counter with a small sink, a microwave, a mini fridge, and a toaster. He flicks the light on and after his eyes adjust to the bright light, he sees his clamorous mate looking in his fridge. Louis looks up to see a pissed off Zayn and quickly makes his body fade away.

"I know it's you" Zayn tries to say in a serious tone but ends up laughing noticing that Louis' clothes are the only thing visible. Louis reappears again, and picks up the package of crisps that he had dropped when Zayn walked in.

Zayn opened his mouth, but soon closes it thinking it's pointless to tell Louis to go to his own room.

"You can stay but -"

"But what?" Louis moans.

Zayn starts walking closer to kitchen and sees the sandwich Louis made. He reaches for it, Louis tries to grab it back but Zayn pushes Louis face by his hand.

"Only if I have this" Zayn continued and quickly took his first bite of the sandwich.

"Damn it Zayn!" Louis says as he gives Zayn a slight push away from him. "Now I have to make another one."

Zayn continued to eat his sandwich happily and walked further away from the kitchen.

"Do the dishes too, love!" he says with his mouth full and he takes the last bite, heading off to his bed.

After Louis finished, he strolls back towards Zayn's bed, spotting him sleeping peacefully. Louis smirks and teleports onto Zayn's bed, waking him up.

"Bloody hell Louis!" Zayn said in his raspy voice.

Louis snickers to himself and lays down, burrowing under the sheets and snuggling up to Zayn. He shuts his eyes and wills himself to fall asleep, but after a few minutes he silently curses himself for coming in here. He can never sleep at sleepovers, why would he think he could sleep now?

"Hey Zaynie"

"Shut up Louis" Zayn takes a pillow, covering his head and trying to block Louis nonstop talking.

"Do you know what happens when - "

"Louis I don't care" Zayn yelled.

Louis gasps sarcastically. He opens his mouth to say something else but before he can he hears Zayn yell,

"Mate, SHUT UP."

Louis stays quiet until he hears Zayns breathing even out, and see's that his mouth has fallen open slightly. Louis' eyelids start to feel heavy so he shuts them and shuffles closer towards Zayn, Zayn would never admit it, but he's quite the cuddler, and Louis smiles slightly when Zayn's arm wraps around his waist

+

He pulls the blanket up over his face, growning loudly at the familiar warmth and light of the sun shining down on him, waking him up from his sleep. But really, who is he kidding? That was probably the worst sleep he's ever had. Niall opens his eyes slowly, blinking a few times to get rid of the left over hazyness from sleeping. He yawns loudly, stretching his arms above his head and flops out of the bed, heading towards his bathroom and turning on the shower. He raises the temperature to a comfortable warmth and sighs loudly, letting the water stream down his back, instantly relaxing him. After half an hour, the water sliding across his body slowly starts to lose its warmth and Niall brings himself back to reality.

He waits a few more minutes till the water becomes unbearably cold and he opens the shower curtain, stepping onto the mat on the floor below him. Niall grabs a towel and wraps it around his waist, he steps over towards the mirror and slides his hands across it, trying to remove the steam that's built up on it. He looks into the mirror, seeing the purple underneath his eyes, the gaunt hollow look of his face, and decides that he doesn't like what he see's, and he quickly glances away from, not wanting to see anymore. As he opens the bathroom door, he notices a strikingly yellow paper in the living room right next the door that leads to the hallways of the other flats. He quickly runs to pick it up, lifting it to his face so he can see it properly.

2:00 PM: Meet at the training area

"Shit" he mutters, he pulls out his phone and checks the time.

2:10 PM

Niall frantically searches for clothes, pulling on anything that he see's not caring if it matches. He races out the door, asking the first group of people he see's where the training area is, they point and mumble where it is, and Niall bolts off in that direction, glad that he has his super speed so he hopefully won't be too late.

When he finally see's a room labeled,

'Training Room'

He bursts in to it, his eyes searching all over it, looking for Paul.

When he finally see's him he jogs over towards him, seeing he's already with two of the other boys.

"Glad you could come, Niall" Paul says, Niall looks at him curiously, he can't tell if he's being sarcastic or not.

"Sorry I'm late"

"Just 11 minutes late, not that bad. We're still waiting for two more to come"

Niall gives them all a confused look when he see's them all looking at something behind him, he glances bhind himself spots the two other lads from the day before. There was the fairly short brown haired boy with similar eyes like Niall, Louis, he thinks. Next to him was slightly taller lad with a couple of tattoos on his arms, walking closer to Niall, whose eyes were concentrating on a yellow paper he was holding. All the boys gather together, and face Paul. Paul trys to speak, but can't find the words to say anything so he decides to start walking further in the hallway and the boys followed quietly.

Their eyes filled with amazement when they saw that this section of the building has tons of rooms, all the walls made from glass, transparent so you can see what's going on inside of them. Paul leads them to a room not that much different from the rest, it was also made of glass, however while the other rooms contained different sorts of weapons, t this room looked like a regular office. Large mahogany cabinets and a large oak desk sitting grandly in the center. It also has other typical things, a minifridge, and a ridiculously large stag head hanging on the wall. Zayn hopes it isn't real.

"Zayn"

His soft hazel eyes glance up Paul. He sees him making a quick gesture, telling Zayn to come up front.

"You're up" Paul says as he opens the door for him and guides him inside. The rest of the boys stand there in silence, watching through the glass as Paul gives a quick talk to Zayn. He pats Zayn on the back and Zayn smiles slightly and faces away from the glass, so the boys could only see the back of him. Paul comes out of the room and yells "Whenever you're ready" and shuts the door, walking towards the rest of the boys.

"What's he gonna do?" Louis said standing right next to Paul.

"Just watch"

Zayn inspects each of the items in the room carefully, scanning the room by turning his head left and right. He feels the anxiety in his stomach and he doesn't know why, he's carried plenty of things from his mind although he's never done it all at once, like Paul wants him to. Plus, these items are heavy, it takes a few guys to lift the cabinets and desks so how can he carry it all with his mind? His eyes focus on the small things first, all the papers, pens, laying on the desks. It all starts floating up as his eyes raise towards the ceiling, Zayn lifts his head up, staring at the floating items, blocking everything out of his mind, he concentrates on what's above him. After he feels comfortable, he lets his eyes wander down to the floor, preparing to flinch with all the small items falling on him, but they don't. The items stay up there, for the first time Zayn doesn't have to keep his eyes and full concentration on them anymore.

He smiles and feels his entire body relax, there is still the undercurrent of anxiety, but for the most part its completely gone from his mind. He cannot contain his excitement, he quickly concentrates on the desks, then the cabinets, all slowly lifting up from the ground. Zayn starts searching for other things, lifting the heaviest things on top of him.

For a few minutes now, everything in the room has been up on the ceiling, above Zayn. He turns around, facing the Paul and the lads outside the glass room. He smirks at them all, winking at Louis. He looks over at Paul, who's smiling at him and he feels a burst of happiness rush through him, he looks back at Louis, who's face has suddenly changed completely, his mouth turning down into a frown and his eyes looking above Zayn. When he looks up he see's everything on the ceiling shaking. Zayn watches in increasing horror as they they start to shake harder and harder. He tries to concentrate on everything, trying to make the shaking stop. The shaking seems to get worse, small things starting to fall. The papers and pens quickly fall first, and Zayn falls to his knees, covering his head. The last thing he see's is Paul and the rest waiting outside, looking at him in terror, then his eyes widen, seeing the door open but not seeing anyone enter. The chairs fall right next him, smashing loudly, and Zayn flinches away, he shuts his eyes tightly when he feels the air around him shutter.

A strong force pushes him all the way to corner of the room, he feels someone on top of his body, someone wrapping themselves around him and covering him, he hears everything around him collapse, the large things smashing into the floor. A few silent moments pass before he feel's the body on top of him get up and off. Zayn opens his eyes and sees a blonde sitting next to him with his arms wraped around his knees.

"How'd you -" Zayn begins, but is cut off,

"Are you okay?" the blonde asks, his voice laced with concern.

"How'd you do t-that?" Zayn stutters.

"All the stuff was gonna fall on top of you, so I just ran and moved you out of the way, that's all" The blonde says with a small shrug.

"Y-you ran?" Zayn raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"Well yea-"

"Wait you're the kid with the super speed right? That makes sense now," Zayn says as if he's talking to himself.

"Well, thanks, uh- sorry, I forget-"

"Niall, m'name's Niall." he says with a smile and pats Zayn's shoulder.

Zayn is still in shock with everything that happens and his heart keeps beating harder and harder, but the young blonde's touch soothes him and he feels his heart stop pounding in his chest. He lifts himself off the ground and reaches his arm out to Niall as he helps him up as well.

　

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, it's kind of a filler, but some serious shits gonna go down in a few chapters so get ready. 
> 
> -mylifeislirry


	4. Chapter Four

He can feel the sweat prickling on the back of his neck as he races towards the target, it's not very far away, only a few hundred kilometers, he should be able to get there in a second or two. Everything seems to slow down when he's running, everything around him seems as if it's moving in slow motion. He can see Liam out of the corner of his eye holding a stop watch, Niall watches as Liam's thumb slowly moves downward, pushing the button when Niall races past him. Louis is a few meters ahead doing the same thing. There's a constant buzzing in his ears as he runs, a thrumming like when you pluck a string on a guitar and let it run out. He swerves a bit to the left to avoid a stray branch that's hanging low on one of the trees next him, he barely misses it, he can feel the thistles brushing his cheek, just a faint whisper of a touch before his body is bursting forward.

He makes a sharp left turn until he's out of the forest and he makes his way into a large clearing, he's been through this drill before, he knows what's coming next. The earth shakes as he feels the first boulder barely miss his shoulder, it slows him down for a split second but he keeps running. The next one lands right in front of him and he jumps over it, almost tripping. He can see Harry to his right, lifting up the boulders and throwing them at him. He's swerves to the left when he see's another boulder, he feels the ground shake from the impact and when he looks over his shoulder he see's how enormous it was,

Showoff, he thinks.

He makes his way through the clearing and back into the woods, this is the hard part. There isn't a trail to follow, it's meant to test his reaction time, but Niall thinks Paul just likes seeing him covered in little scratches from head to toe and twigs stuck in his hair that he has to have Liam pull out one at a time.

He see's Zayn in the corner of his eye, a bright smile on his face as he looks at the stopwatch in his hand before he makes eye contact with Niall and his smile widens even more.

Niall's not sure if Zayn can actually see his face because of how fast he's moving. Paul showed him a picture once of what he looks like and he looks like a streak of white, like someone was painting on canvas and accidently smeared their work. He's kind of glad that Zayn can't see what his face looks like because if he could Niall's sure that Zayn would be able to see the fondness radiating out of Niall's soft smile and the shyness from where his eyes crinkle up around the corners.

He reckons it'll only be a few more seconds before he makes it to the target, he can see Paul standing with a stop watch, the corners of his lips turned down into a frown as he looks down at it. Niall shakes his head and speeds up, he can feel the dirt moving underneath him, his heels digging into it. It only takes half a second before he's blowing past Paul, turning his head to look over his shoulder at him to smile like an idiot.

His eyes widen when he feels his foot get caught in a root sticking out of the ground, his stomach drops and with a sickening crunch he feel's his body hit the ground. He groans loudly and squeezes his eyes shut tightly. He try's to breath but each breath feels like a sharp knife to his stomach, grating harshly against his lungs. He feels the familiar burning of tears in his eyes but he holds them in, refusing to let them spill down his cheeks. His body feels paralyzed, the pain overcoming him with no resistance.

He hears people shouting at him and feels the earth below him rattling and shaking, he assumes it's the boys running towards him to make sure he's okay. He takes a deep breath and moves his joints, stretching them out to make sure they're okay. He sits up, ignoring the gut wrenching pain that comes out of his ribs. His vision is blurry and he can see a figure running towards him, a streak of white against the dark lush green of the tree's behind him.

" 'm okay. Jus' a scratch." He slurs when his vision finally clears and he can see Paul running towards him, he looks behind Paul and see's Zayn making his way through the brush and sprinting towards him.

He looks back at Paul and swallows thickly when he see's the look of fear in his eyes. He tilts his head to the side in a question and try's to get up before Paul can get to him, but the second Paul stops in front of him he's hoisting Niall over his shoulder and running deeper into the woods. Niall feel's like his lungs are collapsing from the pressure of his ribs digging into them, he shuts his eyes tightly, letting the pain wash over him in waves as he feels Paul stumble over a rock, jerking Niall a bit farther forward on his shoulder.

"Paul! Run faster they're right behind us"

Niall opens his eyes and his vision has gotten blurry again, but he can make out Zayn jogging slowly next to them, shouting and pointing wildly behind them.

"Paul- the others, they're...Liam"

Paul stops abruptly and shoves Niall into Zayns arms, Zayn's wrist is brutally pushing into his rib and a sob escapes Niall's throat at the rough pain that he feels.

"Take him and run, I'm going back for the others"

Zayn begins running forward again, bursting through bushes and breaking the low branches in their way.

Niall closes his eyes to blink, but they don't open.

　

+

　

Liam open's his eyes, they widen when he see's the darkness. It's suffocating really, the way the shadows seem to be crawling towards him, getting closer every second. It's as if the darkness wanted to get darker, wanted to turn so black that no light could ever penetrate the uncertainty it creates. He lifts both his hands, raising them up in front of his face and waving them, attempting to see himself. He tries to stand up, but he feel's something catching on his ankle and when he reaches his hand down to touch it he feels a rough chain haphazardly tied around his leg.

"Hello? Anyone?"

He hears a sound, a small moan.

"Hey! Is anyone there? Are you okay?"

The noise get's louder, the sickening sound of wailing and moaning echoing through the darkness, making shivers run up and down his spine. And it wasn't the normal moans and groans that a person makes, that Liam himself made every day at school when he was cornered in the hallway at school and shoved against the nearest wall. No, this was something else. Almost as if it was a choir of people, all making the same sound in a sickening tone. He hears a sharp pop and the noise stops abruptly, but he can still hear the last bits of it echoing through the darkness.

"Hello?" He says again quietly.

He hears another moan again, but from a different place, from a place behind him. It feels like a warning, this noise, this sickening, blood curdling scream, reverberating through the room, feels like warning. Liam does the only thing he can think of and he screams even louder, screaming until his lungs empty all the air inside them. He gulps in more air and continues, screaming until his lungs just can't take it any more, until his voice turns hoarse, he goes past that until his voice dies out.

Now the only thing he hears are his own screams bouncing off the darkness.

　

+

　

"What the hell happened out there?" Niall yells, his hands flailing in front of him.

Everyone is silent, staring at Paul to answer.

"Well?" Niall says.

"We were attacked." Paul says simply with a small shrug of his shoulders.

Louis' eyes widen and all the blood rushes to his face, "Oh! We were attacked? Okay, thank you for enlightening us. Thank you so much for telling us that. We really needed that piece of information, we really did."

Zayn flinches slightly at the sarcasm dripping from Louis' voice and he steps forward, sliding his hand across Louis' upper back in an attempt to calm him.

"What do you want me to say? It's a normal occurence for us, it happens often. Usually our radars catch them before they're near enough to harm us and we can go into lock down, but, like I said earlier, I have my suspicions that they have infiltrated us. This just confirms everything."

Everyone is silent for a second, the only thing that could be heard is the heavy breathing coming from Niall who is still tired from running all day.

"What are we going to do? Liam's gone." Niall asks.

"I don't know. I just... I don't know." Paul says quietly, sounding distraught.

　

+

　

Liam's sitting against a wall, his knees brought up to his chest and his arms cradling his head in an attempt to block out the screaming. His eyes are squeezed tightly shut, the only thing he can hear is his laboured breathing echoing throughout the dark room he's in. His eyes snap open when he hears a door open, he looks up and he see's a small strip of light thats slowly widening in front of him.

"God it's so hot in here, jesus christ" Liam hears a male voice say.

"Well what do you expect, can't this kid control fire or something.?" He hears another man say.

Liam feel's hands grip him roughly and pull him onto his feet, dragging him forward and out of the room. He opens his mouth to ask them where they're taking him, but a quiet gurgling noice comes out, the air grating against his throat and making him cough loudly.

One of the men snickers unkindly and holds Liam tighter, turning left and leading Liam farther and farther away from the room he was in.

"Serves you right, if you hadn't been screaming so much then your throat wouldn't be sore right now, I bet you woke up all the other captives last night with that incessant screaming of yours, rather annoying that was."

It's quiet until they lead Liam into a light blue room, he sits down in a hard wooden chair that squeaks softly when he flops down into it. One of the men walk over to a desk where a lone glass of water is sitting, he hands it to Liam and he looks down at it, swirling it around in the glass before cautiously raising it to his lips and taking a small sip. When he feels the cool water dripping down his throat, wetting his mouth, Liam tips the glass back, letting the water gush down his throat, cooling him instantly.

He hands them the empty glass and says quietly,

"I was only screaming because everyone else was."

They both look at him with bewildered looks on their faces,

"What the fuck are you talking about? No one else was screaming." One of them says.

Liam tilts his head to the side and coughs a bit before saying,

"Yeah there were, everyone was screaming. It wouldn't stop, nothing would make them stop" Liam says, trailing off at the end.

Both of the men smirk at each other before one of them says,

"Well, I guess it's starting then."

"Hm, usually they ease them into it. They don't usually start this soon."

Liam gets up from the chair he was sitting in and stumbles forward, catching himself on the pale blue wall. He turns around and finds one of the men walking towards him, grabbing his shoulder and roughly pulling him backwards into the chair again.

"What are you talking about? What are they doing to me?"

"Don't worry Liam, we're just converting you."

"Converting me to what?"

It's silent for a beat and Liam shuts his eyes, squeezing them tightly and rubbing his temples with his fingers.

"Converting you to being one of us."

　

+

　

He reaches into his pocket, hoping to find the keys to his room, but coming up short. Zayn sighs loudly and rests his head against the door, he balls up his hands into fists and hits the door, the vibration echoing up into his head. He turns around, presses his back up to the door and slides down. He grabs his mobile and slides his thumb across it, opening up a text to Louis,

**Mate, lost my keys, mind letting me into your room?**

Zayn's up and walking towards Louis' room before he gets a response, he makes it to Louis' room and knocks. He feels his pocket vibrate and he see's that Louis has responded,

**Be there in a few minutes, busy talking to Paul. Aren't you supposed to be here?**

Zayn sighs loudly (he feels like he's been doing that a lot lately) and leans against Louis' door with his head tipped back and his eyes closed. He knows he's supposed to go see Paul but he ignores Louis in favor of taking a nap. He hears footsteps pounding down the hallway, they get closer and closer and he groans in irritation, getting ready to yell at some kid for being so obnoxious. He's about to open his eyes when he hears,

"Zayn! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be on your way to talk to Paul?" Niall checks his phone, "We're already late, we better get goin' don't ya think?"

Zayn cocks his head to the side in question but Niall just grabs Zayn's arm and beigns pulling him down the hallway.

"C'mon Zayn, we need to hurry"

Zayn lets himself get dragged through the seemingly endless hallways. They're almost to the meeting place when he begins digging his heels in the ground,

"No, you know what Niall, I really don't want to go to this meeting."

Niall's grip loosens and he stops,

"Okay... What do you want to do then?"

Zayn's eyes widen,

"You want to- uhm, you want to hang out with me?"

Niall smiles brightly and Zayn thinks that his eyes get even more blue (if that's even possible) and he says,

"Of course. I reckon we're mates now, yeah?"

Zayn smiles and nods before pulling his arm from Niall's grasp and walking in the opposite direction. He turns around and see's Niall still standing there,

"C'mon, let's go"

Niall's smile widens and he strides towards Zayn,

"Where are we goin'?"

Zayn loops his arm through Nialls and pulls him down the hallway,

Zayn turns his head slightly, looking down at Niall, and says,

"I'm starved, wanna get some lunch?"

　

+

　

Niall's pretty sure he's been blushing throughout their entire lunch, he tries to listen to what Zayn's saying, he really does, but it's so hard when Zayn is talking so animatedly. When he's not runnning his fingers through his hair or rubbing his lips with his fingertips, he's gesturing wildly with his hands, a quality that usually Niall finds annoying but is now finding quite endearing.

"And that's when I realized that you weren't even listening to what I'm saying"

Niall's eyes widen and he's pretty sure his face looks like a tomato, he opens his mouth to spit out some sort of apology but Zayn cuts him off by smiling and saying,

"I guess you're not that in to comic books then? That's okay, I kinda zoned out when you were talking about the top 10 best pubs in Dublin."

Niall fakes being offended, bringing his palm up to his heart and groaning like his feelings were hurt. He hears Zayn laugh melodically and he lifts his head up from where it was resting against his chest just in time to catch Zayn's head thrown back in laughter. His neck looking long and lean, his collarbones temptingly dipping below the collar on his shirt. Niall gulps and averts his eyes away, his cheeks flaming because he's pretty sure that Zayn saw him staring. When he does manage to look back at Zayn he see's that Zayn is on his phone texting.

His heart sinks a little bit, he didn't think he was _that_ boring. He reaches for his water and takes a sip, just to have something to do while Zayn continues to text. He see's Zayn's mouth twist into a twisted smile and Niall feels his cheeks heat up, but this time from anger. He clenches his fists where they rest on his lap, he opens his mouth to say a snarky comment, but before he gets a word out Zayn looks at him and says,

"Fuckin' Louis, man. Sorry, he-"

Zayn's interrupted by his phone ringing, he looks down and see's that it's Louis. He sighs before answering,

"Ya?"

"Zayn, where the fuck are you, bro? You and Niall were supposed to be here half an hour ago."

"We just went out to eat, just chill man."

Zayn can practically see the look of outrage thats probably on Louis' face right now and he groans and leans his head back so its resting against the booth he's sitting in.

"I thought you were the mature one! You can't just skip our meeting with Paul, especially at this crucial moment! We were supposed to figure out a plan to get Liam back. Or do you not even care that he's been captured?" Louis yells through the phone.

Niall watches as Zayn sighs and starts shaking his leg, bouncing it up and down. Niall wraps his ankles around Zayn's calf, stopping the shaking. When Zayn looks at Niall questioningly Niall just smiles nonchalantly and nods at the phone hanging limply Zayn's hand. Zayn nods and goes back to listening to Louis yelling at him,

"-stening to me?"

"Yeah Lou, I'm listening to you."

"Zayn, get back here now. Paul's pissed."

Zayn glances at Niall and see's that he's on his phone playing some game,

"Louis, is Paul pissed? Or are you being a pissy little brat because you feel like we left you out?"

Louis breathes out harshly before saying, "Fuck you Zayn. We were supposed to be in this together, it was supposed to be me and you here."

Zayn's eyes widen, "Excuse me? Am I not allowed to make other fucking friends?"

"No, Zayn, it's not that... it's just- I- You- I'm always the one who makes friends. You're usually too shy to even talk to other people. We've been friends for a long time Zayn and I... I haven't made any other friends, hell, I lost friends because I would only hang out with you and nobody else. But I just felt so bad for you because you were always sitting alone and never talking to people an-"

"You felt bad for me?! We're friends because you fucking felt bad for me?"

Louis can hear anger in Zayn's voice so he tries to backtrack, "No, Zayn, that's not- that's not what I meant, I-"

"No," Zayn cuts Louis off, "I get it. I get it. You were only friends with me because you felt bad for me, you lost friends because you felt too bad for me to leave me alone. And now that I'm making new friends you feel resentful because you stopped yourself from making new friends to be with me." Zayn laughs bitterly, "Well, I don't know what to tell you, Louis. I don't owe you anything."

Louis squeezes his eyes shut and rubs his palm over his face, "I know you don't. I know that, it's just-"

"You're not a fucking martyr Louis."

"I know that! Now, will you please stop fucking cutting me off?"

Zayn sighs, "You know what Louis? I'm done fucking having this conversation with you." And with that, Zayn hangs up the phone and looks up at Niall.

"Sorry 'bout that. He can be fucking ridiculous sometimes."

Niall smiles knowingly, "He sounded pretty pissed. Should we go back? I'm sure Paul's throwing a proper fit right now."

"Yeah... we probably should. Plus I'm sure Louis is having a meltdown because I hung up on him."

Zayn slides out of his seat and stands, reaching his hand out for Niall to hold.

"C'mon"

Niall smiles and grabs Zayn's hand, interlacing their fingers and hopping out of his seat. He pulls Zayn forward and out of the building, smiling at a girl he passes.

"Let's go"

They must've only been walking for a few minutes before Zayn feels his pocket vibrate, he looks down and see's Louis' name flash across the screen. He rolls his eyes and presses decline, he doesn't have time to worry about Louis' feelings right now, he'd rather be worrying about how sweaty his hand is getting in Niall's grasp.

Zayn's phone vibrates again and he groans,

"Just fucking answer it man, he's not gonna stop" Niall says, clearly annoyed.

Zayn reaches into his pocket and grabs his phone, answering it and lifting it up to his ear,

"What?"

"Zayn, mate we need your help, I-"

"Louis, I'll be there in a few minutes, can't you just leave me alone right now?" Zayn says through gritted teeth.

Zayn waits for a response but he doesn't get one,

"Louis?"

Niall looks over at him,

"He hung up on you?"

Zayn slips his phone in his pocket, saying "Yeah, guess so."

Niall nods and squeezes Zayn's hand tighter before letting go completely.

　

+

　

The first thing that they notice when they get back to the academy is that it's completely empty. Their footsteps echo eerily throughout the halls as they walk towards the room where they were supposed to meet Paul. They walk through a lounge area that is usually full of people who are always bouncing around and talking noisily, but now its just this eery silence. It almost makes Zayn regret yelling at a group of rowdy boys a few days before because they were being too loud, he would much rather have them here then this empty room.

"What happened?" Zayn hears Niall ask from a few steps behind him, Zayn doesn't respond, just moves a little faster towards where he hopes Paul is.

When he nears the door he breaks into a sprint, closing the small gap in just a few seconds and bursting through the door. He stops abruptly when he see's Paul sitting on a couch, leaning forward with his head in his hands and a half empty bottle of whiskey on the coffee table in front of him.

"Paul...." Zayn trails off.

Paul slowly lifts his head, his eyes rimmed red with tears that are unshed,

"They're gone. Everyone's gone."

"Zayn? What are you do-" Niall stops talking when he runs in to the room and see's Paul.

"What do you mean they're all gone? Where is everyone?" Zayn says, ignoring Niall's presence.

Paul shakes his head before putting it into his hands, "They've been sent home. There was another attack, except this time it was directly on the school. We couldn't hold them off... they got in...."

Zayn takes a few steps forward until he's directly in front of Paul,

"Paul," He starts, trying to sound as calm as possible, "Where is Louis?"

Silent tears start streaming down Paul's face, "There were only a few fatalities... they got what they wanted before they had to kill more students."

Zayn recoils away from Paul, immediatly thinking the worst, "Paul, are you telling me that Louis, my best fucking friend in the entire world, is... dead?" Zayn's voice cracks on the last word.

"No, no of course not. He's... he is what they wanted."

Zayn lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

"What? Where is he?" Niall asks, his arm wrapping around Zayn's shoulders. Zayn leans into Niall, resting his head in the crook of Niall's neck and breathing in, smelling laundry detergent and boy.

"He's with Liam now"

　

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, basically, I'm really sorry. I wrote the first half of this then went on vacation and Katherine (irishbradfordziall) was supposed to write the rest then save it for me to edit then I would post it. However, she decided to not write any of it and then the day I got back she went on vacation and left this for me to finish. And let me tell you, I am absolutely AWFUL at writing Ziall so I'm really sorry. She usually writes the Ziall and I write the Lirry and Zouis. So basically I've had the first half of this chapter written like all summer but I just couldn't get past the Ziall, I'm sorry if it sucks. I really am. 
> 
> -Mariah (mylifeislirry)

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to give my friend Mariah a huge thank you for editing and just everything basically, we've decided to write this series together and see how it goes, so give us feedback and we'll post the next chapter soon.
> 
> Also follow our tumblrs' if you'd like!
> 
> -http://mylifeislirry.tumblr.com
> 
> -irishbradfordziall.tumblr.com


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